Polyetherimide preparation method including addition of macrocyclic polyetherimide oligomers

- General Electric

Macrocyclic polyether oligomers, preferably as mixtures of oligomers of different degrees of polymerization, are incorporated in a direct displacement reaction mixture for the formation of polyetherimides, said reaction mixture comprising at least one alkali metal salt of a dihydroxy-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon and at least one bis(halo- or nitrophthalimide). The macrocyclic oligomers can be isolated from an earlier-prepared linear polyetherimide composition. Their incorporation in the reaction mixture does not increase the proportion of oligomers in the polyetherimide product.

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Claims

1. A method for preparing a polyetherimide composition comprising linear polyetherimides by the reaction of the components of a reaction mixture comprising at least one alkali metal salt of a dihydroxy-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon and at least one bis(halo- or nitrophthalimide), which comprises additionally incorporating in said reaction mixture at least one macrocyclic polyetherimide oligomer having a degree of polymerization from 1 to about 10.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein a mixture of macrocyclic polyetherimide oligomers having different degrees of polymerization is incorporated in said reaction mixture.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein said mixture of macrocyclic polyetherimide oligomers comprises oligomers having degrees of polymerization from 2 to about 5.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the dihydroxy-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon has the formula

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein A.sup.1 has the formula

6. A method according to claim 5 wherein the bis(halo- or nitrophthalimide) has the formula ##STR4## wherein R.sup.1 is a C.sub.6-20 divalent aromatic hydrocarbon or halogenated hydrocarbon radical, a C.sub.2-20 alkylene or cycloalkylene radical, a C.sub.2-8 bis(alkylene-terminated) polydiorganosiloxane radical or a divalent radical of the formula ##STR5## in which Q is --C.sub.2 H.sub.4 --, --O--, ##STR6## X.sup.1 is fluoro, chloro, bromo or nitro and m is 0 or 1.

8. A method according to claim 7 wherein the bisphenol A disodium salt is employed as a hydrate which is dehydrated prior to forming the polyetherimide.

9. A method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of isolating said macrocyclic polyether oligomers from an earlier-prepared composition comprising linear polyetherimides.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the dihydroxy-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon has the formula

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein A.sup.1 has the formula

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein the bis(halo- or nitrophthalimide) has the formula ##STR7## wherein R.sup.1 is a C.sub.6-20 divalent aromatic hydrocarbon or halogenated hydrocarbon radical, a C.sub.2-20 alkylene or cycloalkylene radical, a C.sub.2-8 bis(alkylene-terminated) polydiorganosiloxane radical or a divalent radical of the formula ##STR8## in which Q is --C.sub.2 H.sub.4 --, --O--, ##STR9## X.sup.1 is fluoro, chloro, bromo or nitro and m is 0 or 1.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein the bisphenol A disodium salt is employed as a hydrate which is dehydrated prior to forming the polyetherimide.

Referenced Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
4054577 October 18, 1977 Relles et al.
5229482 July 20, 1993 Brunelle
5357029 October 18, 1994 Takekoshi et al.
5514813 May 7, 1996 Brunelle
Other references
  • European Search Report, Jun. 1998.
Patent History
Patent number: 5856421
Type: Grant
Filed: Mar 17, 1997
Date of Patent: Jan 5, 1999
Assignee: General Electric Company (Schenectady, NY)
Inventor: John Christopher Schmidhauser (Niskayuna, NY)
Primary Examiner: John M. Cooney, Jr.
Attorneys: Noreen C. Johnson, Douglas E. Stoner
Application Number: 8/818,987